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German arrested over link to Syria al-Qaeda branch

October 16, 2014

BERLIN — German prosecutors say a German man who spent nearly a year in Syria has been arrested on suspicion of membership in the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida allied organization fighting the Assad regime.

Federal prosecutors said the 27-year-old, identified only as Soufiane K. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in Frankfurt on Wednesday. They said Thursday that he traveled from his hometown of Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, to Syria in July last year and had joined al-Nusra by September 2013. He’s accused of undergoing battle training and carrying out guard duty with the group, as well as acquiring a Kalashnikov rifle and a machine gun. Prosecutors say the man returned to Germany in June. He faces possible charges of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.